“Swami Vivekananda’s Universal Religion”

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
FOR THE
M.A. - I, SEMESTER-I, PAPER-III (CORE), CONTEMPORARY
PHILOSOPHY (INDIAN) A
SUBMITTED BY
Bhavika Karani
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Dr. Narayan Gadade
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

DECEMBER, 2021

SIGN OF THE STUDENT SIGN OF THE GUIDE

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 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks to my

Contemporary Philosophy (Indian) professor ‘Dr. Narayan Gadade’

for his aide and guidance and support in competing this project.

I came to know and learned about so many things

while doing this project.

I am extremely grateful to have gotten this opportunity to

be able to do this assignment

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 Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is religion?
3. Need for Universal Religion
4. Universal Religion and its Implications
5. Conclusion
6. References
7. Bibliography

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 Introduction
Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863, at Calcutta with the name
Narendra Nath Dutta. Swami Vivekananda is greatly known as an academic genius
for his completion of his works of 11 volume encyclopedia. He acquired knowledge
of western logic, western philosophy and European history at the Scottish Church
College. Swami Vivekananda is a Hindu spiritual leader and reformer who made
efforts for the spread of Hinduism not only in the territory on India but also in the
western as well.

Swami Vivekananda was born in upper middle class aristocratic Bengali

family at Calcutta. Being from the upper class, Swami Vivekananda received
education from a western style university where he was introduced to Western
philosophy, the religion of Christianity which helped shape his ideologies. He was a
reader of books of different genre like philosophy, history, religion, mythology. He
also read books by many western philosophers like David Hume, Baruch Spinoza,
George Hegel, Auguste Compte, and John Mill.

To help in social reform movements happening all over India, Swami

Vivekananda joined hands with Brahmo Samaj which stood against the cruelty of
child marriage and sati and encouraged widow remarriage and education for women.
In late 1882, he met Ramakrishna, who helped him envision spirituality and guided
him through the roads of embodiment of the divine self, service to God and service to
human kind. Being influenced by Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, though not
initially but on due course of time, considered him as his guru who demonstrated him
the necessity of all religion.

After the death of Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda traveled around the

territory of India and gained the first-hand experience of the situation under British
colonial rule and its impact and effects on Indians. He continued his venture even to
the outside of the Indian Territory. Swami Vivekananda conducted many private and
public lectures where he delivered speeches stressing on the teachings of Vedanta, the
knowledge of Practical Vedanta, the preachings of Hinduism and pacifism. This
lectures were conducted in many cities of Japan, China and United States namely
Osaka, Kyoto, Illinois, Chicago. The best of his lecture and for what he
became a known figure was his lecture in Chicago where he represented India at the

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1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, where he inspired many to convert to
Vedanta. The beginning of his speech ‘sisters and brothers of America’ was well
received by the audience with a standing ovation.

After touring the west, Swami Vivekananda returned to the colonial India in
1897 where he received a warm welcome. He continued delivering lectures in India
where he highlighted the rich spiritual heritage of Indian religions. Swami
Vivekananda promoted the scientific developments like industrialization and using
modern technologies. He also addressed the wide spread problem of poverty and the
ending of the colonial rule. In the lecture at Kumbhkonam, Tamil Nadu, he said his
famous quote ‘Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached’

He was given the title of Swami which means saint because of his efforts to
revive Hinduism in India and introduced it to the western world. By this, he brought
the status of Hinduism to that of being one of the major religions in the world. Some
of his important literatures include his works on Raja Yoga, Karma yoga, Bhakti
yoga, Jnana Yoga, Meditation and its methods, Practical Vedanta, My idea on
education etc

In 1901, the health of Swami Vivekananda started deteriorating due to various

health issues like asthma, diabetes etc. On 4th July 1902, Swami Vivekananda took his
last breathes while meditating and was cremated on the banks of river Ganga.

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 The concept of Religion

Religion is one of the most important concepts in the entire human society.
Religion is the identity of an individual which helps them to belong to a particular
group, where they find a path to follow in order to prosper in life, get guided by a
perfect entity or spirit, understand the vicious cycle of life and death and be free from
this circle too. According to Swami Vivekananda, India has many religions which are
separated by their belief in the deity of worship. Swami Vivekananda questions how
do we understand the purpose of life? How do we know the difference between the
life and the death? How do identify the divine from the evil? What happens to us after
death? What is the inner voice that we have? According to Swami Vivekananda, all
these metaphysical questions are answered by religion. A religion stands and calms
the thirst of curios questions of individuals where the sciences fail to give an
explanation.

Beyond the realm of calming the thirst, religion is also the provider of hope,
support, purpose and path to an individual for his life. Religion is locomotive, the
motive or the engine which pushes us individuals to keep living the life. But is it any
kind of life? The answer would be a life filled with good deeds. As Swami
Vivekananda say, “It is my belief that religious thought is in man's very constitution,
so much so that it is impossible for him to give, up religion until he can give up his
mind and body, until he can give up thought and life. As long as a man thinks, this
struggle must go on, and so long man must have some form of religion.” 1

Swami Vivekananda revived the religion of Hinduism and Vedanta. He was

in to belief that Hinduism which he considered as the highest in all religion
propagated the teachings which were commonly found in all. Be it Monism, or
Dualism all the religion basically teach us to discover our highest and divinest self
through the process of introspection and refining ourselves to the highest of our
capacities.

Religion etymologically comes from the Latin word ‘religare’ which means to
bind together. Thus it conveys the meaning that religion is something that brings
together the individuals and binds them together. In Sanskrit, we use the word
‘Dharma’ to refer to religion. Dharma often is identified with duties, the duties an

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individual is obliged to perform as per the divine commands. According to Swami
Vivekananda, a religion is coming together and performing the duties for the purpose
of realization of Divinity in each soul. For this many practices or duties are listed
performing which we can develop social as well as character values. This also helps
in developing self-respect, knowing to respect others and cultivate the path of nobility
and modesty.

Swami Vivekananda believed in the rational aspect of religion. For him, the
divinity can we achieved through the efforts of the individual in learning and
acquiring knowledge to get rid of sufferings and developing one’s character. He was
inspired by Ramakrishna who advocated transcending the obstacles which one creates
by limiting oneself and living an enlightened life.

For Swami Vivekananda, religion is not just a knowledge to be acquired and

learned but also should be imparted and lived in our practical life. “Religion is
realisation; not talk, nor doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is
being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming
changed into what it believes. That is religion.”

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 Need of Universal Religion

Swami Vivekananda mentions that there is plurality of religions but the

greater goal of all is the same to know the truth. But as people identify themselves
with different religion, there are quarrels and debates amongst the religions which
create conflicts among the people. Swami Vivekananda say, “The Hindus say we must
not do this or that because the Vedas say so, but the Christian is not going to obey the
authority of the Vedas. The Christian says you must do this and not do that because
the Bible says so. That will not be binding on those who do not believe in the Bible.
But we must have a theory which is large enough to take in all these various grounds.
Just as there are millions of people who are ready to believe in a Personal Creator,
there have also been thousands of the brightest minds in this world who felt that such
ideas were not sufficient for them, and wanted something higher” As a solution to
these conflicts, Swami Vivekananda proposes the concept of universal religion, a
religion which accepts all individuals, followed by all individuals and satisfies all
individuals.

For Swami Vivekananda, a man is always searching for the spiritual guidance
and tries to understand the spirituality of the world. But the plurality of religion make
the individual confused between the varied paths and thus the individual feels lost and
cannot proceed. As per Swami Vivekananda’s words, “It is my belief that religious
thought is in man's very constitution, so much so that it is impossible for him to give,
up religion until he can give up his mind and body, until he can give up thought and
life. As long as a man thinks, this struggle must go on, and so long man must have
some form of religion.” Swami Vivekananda doesn’t criticize any religion or
differentiate between two nor does he say that there is only one greatest among all or
wants to add one more religion of his own. Rather Swami Vivekananda believes that
even though the teachings of every religion seems to be different, their goal is always
the same – to attain the truth or the divinity.

Swami Vivekananda respects and accepts all the worldly religions as they are
and thus defines religion as realization of the divinity within us. “Our watchword,
then, will be acceptance, and not exclusion. Not only toleration, for so-called

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toleration is often blasphemy, and I do not believe in it. I believe in acceptance. … I
accept all religions that were in the past, and worship with them all; I worship God
with every one of them, in whatever form they worship Him.” And thus he proposes
the need of universalization of religion.

By universal religion, Swami Vivekananda doesn’t mean a creation of new

religion but the unification of all the religion present. He emphasizes that the
differences amongst the religions cannot be tackled but when we realize that there is a
common element in each religion, this would be the universal religion which is
actually running through all the religion. By universal religion, Swami Vivekananda
does not imply the need of creation of a new religion which will be accepted by all
but acceptance of all religion as the correct religion. According to Swami
Vivekananda, “What I want to propagate is a religion that will be equally acceptable
to all minds; it must be equally philosophic, equally emotional, equally mystic, and
equally conducive to action.”

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 Universal Religion and its Implications

For Swami Vivekananda, universal religion doesn’t imply to following all the
religions at once by combining the common principles. On contrary, according to
him, universal religion consists of two important aspects – acceptance of all religion
and respecting all religions. There is no need or conversion or having a change in faith
or beliefs, Swami Vivekananda’s universal religion demands acceptance and respect
to the religious diversity in the world in order to lead a balanced and peaceful society.
As Swami Vivekananda’s words say, “The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a
Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate
the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his
own law of growth.”

When we accept all the religions as one, in the sense that they have the same
status, none is superior or inferior than the other, all the conflicts related to religion
will cease to exist. People would consider all the religion as theirs and not in the
frame that this is my religion and this is your religion and respect each other’s beliefs
and faiths. This would in turn result in to religious harmony amongst individuals and
lead to the creation of a peaceful society. If we interpret the actual meaning of the
concept of universal religion and acknowledge the same, we would definitely make a
prosperous society and world.

“If I am sure of anything, it is of this humanity which is common to us all. It is

through this generalised entity that I see you as a man or a woman. So it is with this
universal religion, which runs through all the various religions of the world in the
form of God; it must and does exist through eternity. "I am the thread that runs
through all these pearls," and each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are
the different pearls, and the Lord is the thread that runs through all of them; only the
majority of mankind are entirely unconscious of it” According to Swami
Vivekananda, all the religions are tied by the thread of God in his concept of universal
religion. That God is just not an external being but the divinity within us, the
individuals.
As mentioned before, Swami Vivekananda realized that every individual focus
on finding the divine self. . Universal religion is individualizing the religion. Through
this, universal religion opens up the gates to every individual and admits them without

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any bias. Thus by opening the gates of all religion a person is free to choose which
ever path one wishes to choose and achieve the highest goals of life according to
one’s own choices and inner likes. Universal religion transcends caste, creed, gender,
and nationality. Every individual must be welcomed into the universal religion. Every
religious denomination must be respected. Every religious sect finds happiness and
comfort in it. As a result, universal religion has a greater scope. One’s faith should be
honored by the other.

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 Conclusion

To conclude, universal religion is a great way with a lot of potentials to reduce

religious disparities and conflicts. It doesn’t have a particular structure, scripture,
ritual, custom or conduct but accepts all the aspects of the worldly religions present.
This helps bring all the religion together in to one and creates a ground of unification
of people from different backgrounds, sects, races, and mentalities. As all people
would have a sense of belonging or commonness, there would be no reason of
conflicts feelings of superiority, jealousy or hatred towards other religion, intolerance
or need of conversion.

The concept doesn’t destroy nor creates a new religion rather moulds and
shapes the existing religions in to a better sculpture. Universal Religion will provide
to be key concept for individuals to come together as one and would prosper and
nurture other various ideologies of brotherhood and humanity.

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